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Mary Morton
Introduction This is the story of my very large Catholic family, the story of the people who came before me and helped shape who I am today. This page introduces my great grandparents, grandparents, my parents, and my three younger siblings. It will explain the very diverse beginnings of each side of my family and how a majority of my family eventually ended up making El Paso, Texas our home. Great Grandparents Julianne & Richard Albert Dunlap (RAD) Morton My Great Grandfather Morton was born and raised in Tennessee. He got his law degree and didn’t marry anyone until he was much older. In his late 30’s he contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to El Paso to recover because of El Paso’s drier climate. El Paso had several sanatoriums at the time (hospitals for people with tuberculosis). RAD met my Great Grandmother Julianne in a sanatorium; she had contracted Tuberculosis as well. Julianne was originally from Illinois and got her teaching certificate when she was younger. They married shortly after they were released from the sanatorium and settled there in El Paso. Later RAD’s sisters Hallie (my younger sister’s name sake) and Isabel joined them. They had two sons, my Great Uncle Dunny and my grandfather. Anne Adele & Peter (Pete) Reynolds No one really knows where my great grandfather Reynolds was born. He grew up in the old west. When he was 12 years old he left school and began to work for a cattle rancher and move his cattle along the ranges so they could eat. At 12 he rode a horse all day, camped at night, and watched the cattle. He raised cattle for the rest of his life and eventually owned his own ranch in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was very successful in Alabama not only with his cattle, but was very successful breeding quarter horses. Originally he started breeding quarter horses so that he would have good cattle horses to work the ranch, but it turned into a very profitable business and earned him a spot in the American Quarter Horse Association’s Hall of Fame. My Great Granny Reynolds was born and raised in Sierra Blanca, Texas. She met my Granddaddy there. She attended the University of Arizona and got her degree in Medicine, which at the time was basically considered a nursing degree. Attending U of A during the time my Great Granny was there was consider extremely unusual, but she made the most of it. She was a founding member of the Delta Gamma chapter there. She is the very first woman in my family to pledge Delta Gamma; there are now 7 women in my family who have pledged DG (including myself). She graduated suma cumlade, married my Great Granddaddy, and moved to Mexico where she had 3 children, my Granny, her sister Mary Lou, and her brother Pete. Growing up in the old West and eventually settling in the South it is known that my Great Granddaddy was slightly prejudicial towards African Americans. He thought that Mexican Americans did better work because he had worked with them for so long in his youth. He was known to favor hiring Mexican Americans over African Americans. My Great Granny could have cared less as long as the work was Helen & Herron Calvin Harvey My Great Grandmother Harvey grew up in Central Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. Not much is known about her childhood. My Great Granddad Harvey was raised in a family of Homesteaders that went to help settle the West. They worked different pieces of land trying to live on it long enough to own it, but they were never able to stay on the land long enough to stake a claim. They returned to Oklahoma when he was a junior in High School, which is where he met Helen. They both graduated from High school and got married soon after. My Great Granddad originally worked at a gas station in Frederick, Oklahoma. After his Mother had divorced his father she ended up in Carlsbad running a Diner and married a man named John Nimeyer. After getting tired of working in a gas station he moved the family to Carlsbad and worked in the Diner there. He worked his way up in the community and was eventually hired at the local bank where he worked his way up from being a teller to be president and CEO of the bank. He eventually owned a majority of the stock in the bank. He was known to be very conservative with his money. While he was working his way up through the bank he bought stock in General Electric and it did very well. He was able to retire at 55 and enjoy his favorite hobby, fly-fishing. During retirement he ran for Mayor of Carlsbad and served one term. He was also a third degree Mason. My great grandfather Harvey believed that any man was only worth what he could provide for himself and his family. He believed that no matter the color of your skin if you worked hard and did right by God and your family you were a man worth respecting. Olive Margaret (Dit) & Harold (Rex) Phillipi Both of my Great Grandparents were raised on a farm in Indiana, Pennsylvania. My great grandmother’s legal name was Olive Margaret, but she hated that name and went by Margaret. Although most of her friends called her “Dit.” My great grandfather was named Harold, but he also hated his name and preferred to be called Rex. After he left school he married Dit and became the lead shift man in a coalmine. They had three kids, my Grandma Harvey and two sons. One night he was coming off his shift when he noticed that the next man who was supposed to supervise the next shift was drunk. He sent him home and took over the shift for him. Unfortunately during that next shift the mine collapsed and several men were lost. Rex was dug out but sustained several severe injuries to his back. The mining company would not cover his medical bills because he was not working his shift. After he was released from the hospital then the man who had tried to work his shift drunk had moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico and written back to Rex about a job in the potash mine there. He worked in the machine shop there until he retired. Dit always worked to help pay bills. She worked in a very popular dress shop in Carlsbad until she retired as well. Grandparents Adele & Fred Morton wedding day Morton.jpg|Pito & Adele on their wedding day Granny wedding day.jpg|My granny, Anne Adele Morton kids.jpg|My grandparents Morton and their first 6 children granny and grandaddy.jpg|My grandparents at my Aunt Annie's wedding grandkidMorton.jpg|All the Morton Grandkids My grandparents Morton are pretty interesting people. My grandfather, Fred whose nickname growing up was Pito, was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. He was a very talented artist as a kid and loved the game of baseball. My brother has some of his drawings of old baseball players that he drew hanging in his room. At the age of 16 his father died, which was very hard on his mother. He attended Texas Western University originally studying art, but was talked out of it by one of his father’s old friends. He transferred to the University of Texas where he graduated with his Law degree by the age of 22. At 23 he married my grandmother and became the youngest U.S. district attorney. At 24 he took down the infamous Billy Sol Estes on mail fraud charges. The day the verdict was read my dad’s older sister, Annie, was born. My grandmother, who we call Granny, is the very opposite of my Granddaddy. My granny grew up on a ranch most of her life. Her father was one of the last “real” cowboys. Her family moved a round a lot to keep up with their cattle. She spent most of her childhood between Mexico and Magdalena, New Mexico. Eventually they settled on a ranch in Demopolis, Alabama where she attended high school. She attended the University of Alabama where she was a member of Delta Gamma (she is one of my three legacies in Delta Gamma). She transferred after two years to Texas Western to be with my Granddaddy. My grandparents met when they were paired to walk together in my Granny’s cousin’s wedding. My Granny’s cousin married my Granddaddy’s best friend. After the wedding they were inseparable. They were married when my Granddaddy was 22 and my granny was 20. My Granny was an English teacher for a little after they were married, but became a stay at home mom after the first of their eight children was born. Both of my Grandparents are very liberal and accepting people. Growing up in places that were very diverse they were no stranger to prejudices when it came to certain races, but never facilitated any such behavior themselves. Both were raised Catholic and raised their children Catholic, which is why I was also raised in the Catholic Church. Donna & Clarke Harvey My grandfather Harvey was born in Frederick, Oklahoma. He was born the oldest of four children and his family moved in Carlsbad, New Mexico when he was in middle school. He met my grandmother when they were both seniors in High School and wanted to date her from the moment he met her. Unfortunately my grandmother didn’t feel the same at first. They were close friends and when they each left for college they thought it would be the end. But when my grandfather returned from his first year at OU he pursued my grandmother again and proposed to her. They married quickly and my grandmother followed him back to OU where they lived in the provided married housing and had my Uncle Randy. My grandma was born and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania as the oldest of three children. When her family first moved to Carlsbad she was not very enthusiastic. But after becoming friends with my grandfather and dating one of his close friends in high school things looked up. When she returned home after her first year at Texas Tech University she fell in love with my grandfather and quickly married him. She never finished her college degree and was a stay at home mom to their three kids, the youngest being my mom. Both of my grandparents did not experience diversity until they were adults. Growing up in predominantly white areas each of them admitted that they did not meet people of other races until they were in college. Although this could have lead to prejudices or misunderstandings my grandparents are very open-minded people and instilled respect for all different types of people in their children. Parents Monica & John Morton My dad was born in El Paso, Texas in May of 1963. As the third of eight children my dad is no stranger to complete and total chaos. Growing up with 4 brothers and 3 sisters was a bit of challenge, but my dad has a strong enough personality that he was not lost in the mix. He graduated from Coronado High School in 1982, where he played Varsity Baseball all 4 years he was there. After High School my dad attended the University of Texas where he walked on to the baseball team in the fall of 1983. To this day my dad is one of only 10 players that have walked on to the UT baseball team and started during their career there. He pitched in the College World Series in 1985 and 86, and has two Southwest Conference Champion rings. (FYI the Big 12 used be called the Southwest Conference, I did not know that.) He graduated from UT in 1987 after graduation he was offered a contract with the Texas Rangers, but decided to settle down and marry my mom instead. My mom was born in Dallas, Texas in October of 1963. Her family moved around a lot as a young kid, but her family eventually settled down in El Paso when she was in middle school. She was a cheerleader and golfer at Coronado High School, where she met my dad at the beginning of her junior year. After she graduated from Coronado she attended Texas Tech University for two years, where she pledged Delta Gamma. Before her junior year of college she transferred to UT to be with my dad. They married in June of 1987 and moved to Dallas, Texas. Growing up in El Paso gave my parents a very different perspective when it came to different races. In El Paso there were so many different races all mixed together when they were growing up that race was never an issue for them. Their parents taught them to respect others no matter what they looked like and the people around them were taught the same. Each of them remembers seeing others be judged based on race or gender, but it was something they never agreed with because of how they were raised. My siblings and I I was born in Lubbock, Texas on October 20th five years after my parents were married. They had moved to Lubbock after my Dad had been offered a job there. We lived in Lubbock for the first two years of my life, but after that my parents decided to move back home to El Paso to be with our family. My brother John was born in El Paso in 1995, my sister Hallie was born in 1998, and the youngest Julianne was born in 2001. My brother and I both graduated from Coronado High School, where our parents met, and Hallie is currently a sophomore there. I left El Paso to attend OU in 2011 and my brother left to attend Trinity University in San Antonio in 2013. Summary I have to say that I really enjoyed this assignment. I grew up around a lot of family; both sets of my grandparents and most of my aunt and uncles live in El Paso. So I knew a lot of my family history before this assignment. What I really I learned this time after I asked my parents and grandparents several questions is that I come from a line of very strong and independent women. Although I didn’t have time to mention it here there were several women in my family who divorced their husbands because they were dead beats or alcoholics, which back in their day was unheard of. Each of my female relatives knew their self worth and left their husband to make it on their own. Also, almost every single woman that came before me received some type of higher education passed high school. That was amazing because during that time being a well-educated woman was not common. I take a lot of pride in knowing that the women who came before me were smart and capable of doing things on their own, which makes sense of why I am such a strong willed and determined person myself. When I look at how I was raised and the issue of race or culture I find that for me it wasn’t an issue growing up. My family itself is a mix of races and cultures. My Granny Morton is part Mexican and many of our family traditions are from the Mexican culture we experienced in El Paso. Some of our family traditions have German and French influence from the Phillipi side as well. Either way I come from a diverse background. El Paso is also very different in a sense that it is a mix of several different races and cultures. Although Mexican Americans are the most common race in El Paso there isn’t much tension among the races. Back in the beginning of the city there was some tension but today much of that is gone. I did experience some prejudice towards my family being white, but it wasn’t anything too extreme as other people in other places have experienced. I was raised to respect others and be open to different ways of thinking. That there is not just one-way to handle things in life and sometimes I would be wrong. In that way I was lucky to come from such a loving and accepting family. I’m very thankful for that. External links Family tree- http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-243171911/morton# City of El Paso, Texas- https://home.elpasotexas.gov/ City of Carlsbad, New Mexico- http://www.cityofcarlsbadnm.com/ Category:Students